Imperfect Perfection
by SarahLia
Summary: For Koyume, an ideal date is exactly like one in a romance manga. When a Kaos-like streak of bad luck strikes on her date with Tsubasa, she quickly finds that it's much easier to write about or plan the perfect date rather than actually go on one. But perhaps the definition of 'perfect' isn't quite what she thought it was. Koyume/Tsubasa fluff.


Koyume looked at herself in the mirror in her room. Today was to be her second real date with Tsubasa. She had read and written enough romance manga to know how exactly she wanted things to proceed, even if Tsubasa was another girl, rather than a boy. There was a certain way these things were supposed to happen, after all. Sure, maybe she didn't have much experience in real life. But she had researched and written about it.

There was still some time before they'd leave. Koyume's mind briefly wandered, and she considered various scenarios. In a manga, there might be someone else present, and then there'd be a love triangle. Who else would be smitten with her? She tried to imagine a boy, but as she didn't know many, the only one she could conjure up in her mind strongly resembled Tsubasa. She looked over at her roommate Kaos, sitting on her bed and staring blankly at her tablet.

No, Koyume decided, that would never happen. Kaos was her treasured friend, but there weren't any romantic feelings between the two of them. That just didn't work.

But what if things were reversed? What if Kaos was also in love with Tsubasa, and Koyume was competing with her? How would that sort of love triangle play out? Koyume suddenly felt an irrational stab of jealousy. How many times had Kaos and Tsubasa played video games together?

 _Wait, I'm being silly. Kaos isn't in love with Tsubasa any more than she's in love with me. I need to stop thinking about all that and focus on making sure my date with Tsubasa goes perfectly. And our date will be just like one in a manga: romantic and lovely. That's what I've planned for._

Koyume closed her eyes and imagined her and Tsubasa together. Just doing so brought a smile to her face. Well, she wouldn't need to imagine much longer. She opened her eyes and looked in the mirror again. Deciding she definitely looked cute enough, she twirled around. That turned out to be a bad idea. As she spun, she stubbed her toe hard against the table in the middle of their room.

"OUCH!" she cried.

"WAH!" Her loud yell had startled Kaos, who jumped up, waving her arms and throwing her tablet aside. "K-Koyume!"

"I'm sorry, Kaos," Koyume said. "I didn't mean to scare you. I just stubbed my toe and it…really hurts." That was for sure. Her toe was throbbing with pain, red and already slightly swollen. She reached down and rubbed it some. At least it wasn't bleeding.

"D-Do you need to go to the hospital?!" Kaos said, sounding panicked. As usual, she blew up over the smallest of mishaps. Some things never changed. Koyume was the one with the injury, but poor Kaos looked as though she was about to hyperventilate.

"No, no!" Koyume said, patting Kaos's head gently. "I'm okay, really! I'll just put something over it…or maybe wear different shoes…I was going to wear sandals out, but now…"

"You and Tsubasa are going on your date today, right?" Kaos asked, a little calmer.

"Yep!"

"Eheheh, that's so nice." A giddy look fell over Kaos's face, the same one she wore whenever she was especially happy. Was she that pleased about her friends' date? Kaos was such a sweet girl and a good friend.

"I wish I could come along and just watch…" Kaos added.

"Uh, what was that?" Koyume was sure she must have misheard her.

"Nothing, nothing at all!" Kaos said, holding up her hands as if in surrender. "Please forget that I said anything! And enjoy your date!"

Koyume chuckled as she found a small bandage and began wrapping it around her injured toe. Hopefully, nobody would even notice it. There was a knock on their dorm room door. Koyume called for them to enter, and in burst Tsubasa, a cape slung over her back, and a black eyepatch covering her left eye.

"Come, my brave companion!" Tsubasa said. "Let us embark on our harrowing journey of destiny!"

"Tsu-chan!" Their friend Ruki was standing right behind her. "You can't go out like that! Lose the cosplay."

"Oh, it doesn't bother me at all," Koyume said, smiling brightly. And it didn't. That was part of the Tsubasa's charm, after all. Beneath her cool exterior, there was a passion for everything she did, whether it was drawing her manga or going on an outing.

"It's ridiculous," Ruki insisted, pulling the cape off of Tsubasa, who simply shrugged.

"What happened to your foot, Koyume?" Tsubasa asked, pointing to it.

"Ah, nothing! Just stubbed my toe!" she said, smiling. Drat. She hadn't wanted Tsubasa to notice, but some things couldn't be helped. Well, that didn't put a damper on their date.

"Kaos!" Ruki said, stepping into their room. "How's your new storyboard coming?"

"I-I'm partway through one panel," Kaos said. "J-Just three and a half to go…"

"Don't you need a lot more than one four-panel comic though?"

Kaos turned red. "Um…probably."

"We'll let you work in peace then," Tsubasa said. "Ready to go, Koyume?"

"You bet!" Koyume said. "Good luck, Kaos!" She was sure Kaos would have no trouble producing another good storyboard. She had managed it once before, hadn't she?

"T-thanks!" Kaos weakly waved at the two of them. Ruki gave them a warm smile.

Koyume and Tsubasa left the dorm and headed out to a little diner for lunch. Koyume had hoped for a sunny day, rather than a grey and overcast one, but she figured that was alright. After all, she was with Tsubasa, and that alone made the day bright. The two made small talk over their meal. Koyume forgot about her throbbing toe and focused on making things go perfectly from that point forward.

"So, how's your newest storyboard going?" Tsubasa asked as dessert arrived.

Tsubasa wanted to talk shop on their date? That wasn't quite how Koyume had pictured things going; she had imagined them just gazing romantically into each other's eyes. But that was okay. Koyume loved her work as much as any manga artist and she knew Tsubasa did too. And she was always glad to hear any thoughts and insights Tsubasa had to share about manga.

"Quite well, thank you," Koyume replied. She looked down at the giant chocolate parfait in front of her. Should she really have ordered it? Would Tsubasa think less of her for pigging out? Well, maybe that didn't matter. Tsubasa wasn't judgmental about that sort of thing, after all. "I have a great idea that I've been sketching out, but I'm not just not one-hundred percent it's what my readers want, you know?"

"It's about balance," Tsubasa said wisely. "If you don't truly love what you create, it can show in your work. When you put all your heart and soul into it, then it's evident, and your readers will love it too. If you only draw and write whatever you think people want to read, well, it might not necessarily be what you truly want to create. And that can show as well."

"You're so right!" Koyume said. "It's all about love! Love for your work, love for your readers, love for…" She wanted to add 'you, Tsubasa,' but her resolve faltered at the last second. Instead, she trailed off. Tsubasa nodded, and Koyume smiled back, taking another large spoonful of her chocolate parfait. Unfortunately, she was paying more attention to Tsubasa than what she was eating and by the time she noticed the chocolate dripping off the spoon and staining the front of her dress, it was too late.

"Eek!" she cried. She now had a large brown blotch on her front. "What a mess…"

"It's okay," Tsubasa said, calm as ever. "It can look artistic. I can't remember the last time I finished something without ink stains everywhere."

Most of the time, Koyume didn't have a problem with being self-conscious. Around Tsubasa, however, that was another story sometimes. Tsubasa's words reassured her some, but Koyume wasn't really interested in looking artistic. She wanted to look cute, especially to Tsubasa. And having a big chocolate stain on her dress didn't really make her look cute – it made her look more like a little kid who was still learning to eat properly. She felt a little upset but told herself she could deal with this.

"Ah, maybe," she said, tilting her head slightly, and attempting a smile. She'd simply have to laugh this off. She wiped her front with a napkin, but there was no question that the dress was stained. Maybe the dorm mother would be able to wash it for her.

Thankfully, the rest of their meal passed without any other incidents. However, when they later arrived at the movie theater, more misfortune befell Koyume. The romance movie she had planned to see with Tsubasa was sold out.

"Oh no!" she cried, frowning. She quickly recovered, however, and began scanning the other shows. "Well, that's okay. We'll just see something else, right, Tsubasa?"

"It looks like most the shows are sold out," Tsubasa commented, looking at the listings alongside her. "I guess that comes with going out on a weekend afternoon. But we can still see something. Let's find out what else is playing."

After some searching, Koyume found only one movie that was available. She didn't know what to make of the poster – a boy and a girl looking through a pair of binoculars – but figured it would have to suffice for their movie. The two girls bought their tickets, made their way into the theater where that movie was playing and sat down.

Koyume looked around. There was hardly anyone else in the theater at all. This was a perfect opportunity for something romantic to happen. She hadn't heard of the film they were watching, but what did that matter? You could still hold hands watching pretty much any movie. And if it was scary, well, that would give her an excuse to cling to Tsubasa.

"Here's the movie!" she whispered excitedly as the theater grew dark and the screen lit up. But Tsubasa gave no indication she had heard her.

Koyume looked over. Tsubasa had leaned back in her seat and was fast asleep, breathing softly and evenly. Koyume sighed. That wasn't supposed to happen. Tsubasa's right arm was lazily resting on the armrest of her seat. Koyume reached over to try and take her hand (maybe _something_ could actually happen as she envisioned it), but as she did, Tsubasa stirred in her sleep and moved her arm away from Koyume. Koyume gently touched Tsubasa's shoulder, but she was sleeping too deeply to notice. Feeling disappointed yet again, she crossed arms and figured there was now nothing to do but watch the movie.

In the end, the movie turned out to be yet another thing that had gone wrong on their date. Koyume could see why it was the only one that wasn't sold out. It was dull and boring. She briefly considered just shaking Tsubasa awake so that the two of them could leave. But she looked so peaceful, that Koyume didn't want to. Resting her chin on her arm, she tried her best to pay attention to the show while stealing an occasional glance at Tsubasa. After what seemed like an eternity, the movie was finally, mercifully over.

"Ah, I'm sorry, Koyume," Tsubasa said, yawning a little as they left the theater. "I was up fairly late last night."

"There's no need to apologize," Koyume said. "The movie was pretty boring anyway, so you didn't really miss much. Were you up against a deadline?"

"No, I just had a rush of inspiration, went to work, and, before I knew it, it was morning."

"That's Tsubasa for you!" Koyume said happily.

"I guess it is. I think we might still have some time before it's too late. What else did you want to do, Koyume?"

What Koyume really wanted to do was to get things back on track. Surely there was still time for that.

"We can go for a walk in the park!" she said cheerfully. "All the flowers are still in bloom, so it's sure to be lovely."

She wasn't sure if Tsubasa would actually want to do that. Maybe viewing flowers wasn't really a super-cool activity that she'd be into. Tsubasa seemed okay with that suggestion though. She nodded at Koyume, and the two of them set off for the park. Koyume smiled to herself. This activity was certain to turn out how she had envisioned it. They could hold hands while looking at the flowers, and then the two of them would-

A loud crash of thunder yanked Koyume out of her fantasy. The sky suddenly opened up, and rain started pouring down. They quickly ducked into a nearby convenience store so as to not get drenched. Koyume looked in dismay through the store windows, watching the rain wash away her carefully laid plans.

This was the last straw. It was all too much for her. Between stubbing her toe, spilling her dessert, being forced to sit through a boring movie while Tsubasa dozed, and now ending up caught in this torrential downpour, nothing had gone right with this date. Nothing. Unable to help herself, Koyume teared up.

"Koyume?" Tsubasa said, looking a little concerned. "What's wrong?"

"Well, the rain, for starters…" she said, sniffling.

"Oh, that. I'm sure it'll let up soon."

"It isn't just that though," she glumly. She didn't want to start bawling – as Kaos probably would have done – but it was hard not to. "It just feels like nothing's gone right today. It was supposed to be perfect, and this is about as far from perfect as you can get."

"Perfect?" Tsubasa raised an eyebrow at her. "What do you mean?"

"I wanted everything to go flawlessly for our, you know, date."

"Our date?"

"Yes," Koyume said, blushing. "But then everything went wrong instead. First, there was my toe, and then lunch, and then the movie, and now-"

"Koyume," Tsubasa said, interrupting her. "You did exactly what you set out to do. The day _was_ perfect."

"Huh?"

"Mishaps occur. So what? They happen when we work on our manga too." Tsubasa struck a pose like one of the heroes from her stories, one finger pointing up in the air. "But we accept that, correct them, and move on. And some things, we can't do anything about, but they still add to our experiences and what we've created and what we've done. They keep life interesting. Ultimately, a purely perfect story is boring, just as a perfect life would probably be boring."

"Tsubasa…" Koyume smiled widely, warmth bubbling up inside her.

"We spent all this time together, just the two of us. Really, I can't think of a more perfect day."

Tsubasa had enjoyed the day with her after all! Koyume was elated. Her mood, which had been at a distinct low point when they had entered the convenience store, was now very much on the rebound.

Contrary to Tsubasa's words, the rain didn't let up. She bought an umbrella for the two of them to share as they walked back to the dorm. Huddling together under one umbrella wasn't quite what Koyume had planned for today, but it definitely could set the stage for something romantic to happen.

"Oh, your shoulder is getting wet, Tsubasa," Koyume said, glancing over at her. "This umbrella is too small."

Tsubasa shrugged. "It's fine. I'd rather me get partly soaked then you. It seems like you've been worrying over a lot today, and there's no need to add to it."

"It's not necessary," Koyume insisted, snuggling closer to Tsubasa. "There. Now you can shift the umbrella some and neither of us will get wet."

"Thank you, Koyume." Tsubasa smiled warmly at her. Koyume wanted to say more but felt like it might have ruined such a wonderful moment. She walked on in contented silence, enjoying the feeling of being so close to the girl she liked.

When they were back at the dormitory, they stopped in front of the door to Koyume's room.

 _Now_ , Koyume decided. _I need to tell her._ _I need to be honest and confess_.

"Tsubasa," she said. "I just want you to know, well, how I feel about you…"

"Koyume, you don't have to say anything." Tsubasa leaned in and kissed her gently near her mouth. Koyume felt a sudden rush to her head, and her face grew hot. Tsubasa had actually kissed her!

"Thank you for a wonderful day," Tsubasa said. "I hope we can do it again soon."

"You're…welcome…" she said airily. "Me too."

"Well," Tsubasa said. "I'm going to go get some work done. I'll see you at dinner."

"See you…at…dinner…" Koyume said, still feeling entranced as she watched Tsubasa walk off down the hallway.

In an almost dreamlike state, Koyume slid open the door to her own room and stepped inside. She saw Kaos still clutching her tablet; her friend appeared to be still working on the same panel she had been working on in the morning. Koyume flopped down on her bed and hugged her pillow tight against her. It was still all she could do to avoid squealing in delight. She was going to be on this cloud for a long time, no doubt about it.

"Welcome back, Koyume!" Kaos said, looking up from her work. "How was your date with Tsubasa?"

"It was…perfect," Koyume said, still smiling.


End file.
